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25 January, 2009

Passion in Words

At the Apple Quarterly Conference call the other day, Tim Cooke, Apple's interim CEO, was asked how Apple would continue to function without Steve Jobs. Tim Cooke responded with passion befitting a leader that truly believes in his purpose, the companies mission and the products Apple produces. If these words express Tim Cooke's heart, then Apple has nothing to fear going forward.

All accomplishments arrive through the work of great leaders. Those leaders may only lead one person, themselves. They may lead large groups or they may lead whole companies. In each instance, there is some driving force that is there pushing for delivery. Encouraging during darkest of times, inspiring when the last slice of pizza has been sitting out for 3 hours.

At times there is only one leader, leading their own self. The sole artist, the garage scientist, the student working out the latest hack to Facebook. These people are leaders too. Leading their own hands and mind. But leaders with a passion and vision that can produce the unimaginable. Others lead small groups and live with the uninspiring name of "project manager", hampered by budgets, time constraints and the inevitable nay sayer. Yet, these project managers are responsible for inspiring folks to deliver inventions against all odds. Finally, there are company leaders. They inspire, question and reward their colleagues to deliver for the good of the company and their customers. The best ones are the true heart of a company. They attract leaders so that their companies can dream up the truly amazing products. Is Apple one of those companies? Is Tim Cooke one of those leaders? If his words are any indication then perhaps, just maybe ... yes.

I found the following by Adam Lashinsky of Forbes here: http://gowest.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/01/22/the-cook-doctrine-at-apple/

I paste the bit that got me to blog here -- but head over to Forbes for the full article.

We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.

I find these words to strike a cord with my view of my own company. Tim has put to words what I feel about our mission, he has put his passion into words that resonate and for that I thank him